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Former Townsend police chief authors another book

By M.E. Jones, Correspondent

Updated:
10/21/2012 06:29:47 AM EDT

TOWNSEND -- Former Police Chief Bill May's first book, "Billy Boy," is a novel based on real life -- a humorous, self-deprecating, first-person romp through the fictionally embellished life and times of a Catholic boy growing up in a small New England town.

When it was published last year, May said he wrote it "to make people laugh" and that he'd continue that genre in his second book, promising to dish up details from the "humorous side of being a small town police officer."

But May's new, nonfiction book, "Once Upon a Crisis" is not funny. It wasn't meant to be.

May said in a recent interview that three or four weeks into writing the new book, he switched thematic gears. He found he wanted to take a serious track this time after recalling "so many tragic events" that he'd been a third party to during his tenure with Townsend police as an officer, EMT and chief.

"I collaborated with people who'd gone through things of their own," he said, sometimes contacting people he hadn't communicated with in many years. "Reconnecting can be difficult. Maybe that's why we don't do it."

Post-traumatic closure is not easy. That's what "Once Upon a Crisis" is all about.

May recalled chatting with a firefighter about 20 years ago about a rescue call the firefighter had responded to, a fatality he'd been dreaming about ever since. Asked if he'd received any post-stress debriefing after it happened, the firefighter said no.

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"I felt fine," he told May.

May described the conversation in "Once Upon a Crisis," detailing how the man told him of his recurring dream about removing the body of the deceased.

"I thought, that's not good," May said.

Much of the book, he said, discusses traumatic events that emergency personnel and first responders such as police, EMTs and firefighters witness on the job, and the anguish they may suffer when they take those experiences home.

"There needs to be a way to get that (tragic incident) out of your mind" so that you can move on, he said. "Now I know that in those instances and environments, there's stress that goes undetected" and it took its toll on him, too.

A generation ago, two young children and their mother -- pregnant with a third child -- were murdered in their home. A teenager who had lived in town all his life was convicted of the murders and is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.

How do survivors ever recover from such a loss, such a horrific crime?

The husband and father in that long-ago case, bereft of his entire family, somehow came back from the brink. He still lives in town, May said, adding that he "is a wonderful person," with a lot to teach others about survival.

While in therapy, May began to see things from a new slant. He'd say things like, "I feel I haven't done enough for my people."

Asked (by the therapist) who those people were, he said, "The people of Townsend."

While there was nothing wrong with taking an important job seriously, he had not compartmentalized his work such that he could separate his personal life from his professional role.

Rather than endlessly replay the past, which can't be changed, May started getting involved in the here and now. Civic projects, for example, like serving on the library building committee. But he also learned that you can "bring happiness to others" in simple ways, he said. Like dropping in at the new Senior Center to play cards, socialize.

Retired now and living just over the border in New Hampshire, May has plenty to do. He plays in a band, takes walks. Connects with people.

And, of course, he writes.

"I've had a wonderful, rewarding career," he said. Somewhere along the line, he learned that, too.

May will be at the Townsend Library for a book signing of "Once Upon a Crisis" next Saturday, Oct. 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information or to register, contact Stacy Schuttler at 978-597-1714 or email sschuttler@cwmars.org.

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